{"id":4401,"date":"2025-09-12T16:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T15:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=4401"},"modified":"2025-09-12T17:17:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T16:17:55","slug":"estevao-thrills-on-chelsea-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2025\/09\/12\/estevao-thrills-on-chelsea-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Est\u00eav\u00e3o Thrills on Chelsea D\u00e9but<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (August 8<sup>th<\/sup> 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Est\u00eav\u00e3o Show<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teenage prodigy Est\u00eav\u00e3o Willian Almeida de Oliveira Gon\u00e7alves made an impressive d\u00e9but for Chelsea in their 2-0 win over former Manchester United and Ajax gaffer, Erik ten Hag\u2019s Bayer Leverkusen this evening. While it was just a pre-season friendly Est\u00eav\u00e3o showed plenty to excite his new fans with an exhilarating first half, culminating in a deserved goal after 18 minutes \u2013 his compatriot Jo\u00e3o Pedro Junqueira de Jesus&nbsp;scored a late second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Est\u00eav\u00e3o Willian impressed in the recent Club World Cup for Palmeiras, playing his last match for the Brasilian club in the quarter-final loss to eventual champions and his new club, Chelsea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pushed down the order by the new arrivals, S\u00e9n\u00e9gal striker, Nicolas Jackson, was not even the Chelsea squad as he seeks a move to pastures new. Liam Delap had a quiet start to his Chelsea career with just 13 touches. Meanwhile, Est\u00eav\u00e3o Willian opened his account with a crisp volley from close range after 18 minutes who hit the crossbar after setting up the chance for himself \u2013 Est\u00eav\u00e3o had gone close previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Deserved<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite starting their pre-season a month earlier Bayer Leverkusen looked the rustier, showing signs of missing coach Xabi Alonso who left for Real Madrid in the summer and others who have moved on too. Despite ten Hag\u2019s wishes Granit Xhaka was allowed to go to Sunderland. Ten Hag will need time to deliver results in a notoriously impatient industry \u2013 it remains to be seen how patient Bayer Leverkusen will be and what relationship ten Hag will forge with his new charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chelsea\u2019s Enzo Maresca was backed in the transfer market and delivered the Europa Conference League and Club World Cup as well as Champions League football in his first season at Stamford Bridge. Est\u00eav\u00e3o impressed on the right flank, profiting after sterling work on the left wing by Marc Cucurella to set up Cole Palmer, whose audacious effort rebounded off the crossbar with goalkeeper Mark Flekken well beaten. Est\u00eav\u00e3o pounced to score from the rebound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He had other good efforts and the signs of a good understanding with Palmer were clear to see. Palmer, however, was fortunate to escape injury \u2013 former Liverpool defender, Jarrell Quansah\u2019s rash sliding tackle caught Palmer\u2019s left leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Delap\u2019s d\u00e9but was disappointing, but he will have other opportunities, perhaps as early as two days from now as Chelsea entertain AC Milan. Meanwhile, substitute Jo\u00e3o Pedro emphasised the win by turning and shooting to score Chelsea\u2019s second as full time loomed large after an excellent assist on the right by Genesis Antwi \u2013 he pulled it back for Jo\u00e3o Pedro from the byline for the Brasilian to open his Stamford Bridge account..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (August 8th 2025) The Est\u00eav\u00e3o Show Teenage prodigy Est\u00eav\u00e3o Willian Almeida de Oliveira Gon\u00e7alves made an impressive d\u00e9but for Chelsea<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,14],"tags":[1264,1253,260,1261,1254,1255,1258,1257,1203,1265,1260,1263,1256,1259,1262],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4401"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4405,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions\/4405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}